Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Private initiative: Reconstruction Fund

We are all consumed, in one way or another, by relief efforts to deal with the humanitarian crisis that has struck our Lebanon since that dreadful July 12. We owe it to the Lebanese most affected by this offensive to give them something to go back to after the offensive is over (hopefully soon).

I am proposing to set up a reconstruction fund, and the bigger it is, the more families we would be able to cover with it. We can decide for a channel for the fund at a later stage, but I am bringing it up now because I propose that the foundation for the fund be the refunds received for returned tickets for the Baalbeck, Beiteddine and Byblos festivals.

The first step would be for you to circulate this message as widely as possible, and to courier me, pass me personally your tickets or fax copies over (will work a deal to accept them faxed from virgin) so I can exchange them (contacts below). I will reply to all every time I receive any tickets so that we all know how the fund is growing, and are sure where our tickets are going. I will also set up a dedicated bank account at Audi, for which I will allow online viewing of the account, so that you can monitor where the money is going to (I will circulate account details and online password). After that, we will see how best to channel the money into reconstruction.

I look forward to your feedback and suggestions to the above - still rough - proposal. I hope you will trust me with such an initiative!